The invention relates to a patient draw sheet that facilitates positioning of a patient to further facilitate medical treatment and patient care. More particularly, the invention relates to a draw sheet which maintains side positioning of a patient, thereby permitting a single care provider to attend to patient needs. It further allows a single care provider to reposition a patient both laterally and longitudinally relative to a bed or similar patient support apparatus. The invention may further include adjustable cushions to maintain patient positioning and alignment during active use of the draw sheet for patient comfort as well as to facilitate use of the draw sheet.
Health-care workers at hospitals, nursing homes, and in home care situations increasingly face shortages of personnel due to both a tight labor market and restrictive managed care contracts. Nevertheless, the needs of the patients remain. Patients routinely and regularly must be repositioned in order to perform medical and personal care tasks, to prevent pressure sores, and simply to provide for comfort for the individual. There is a constant need for a single care provider to provide quality care without causing disabling back strain to the care provider, particularly the elderly home-care giver, such as a spouse or parent.
For example, regular movement of invalid, bedfast patients prevents bed sores from occurring. Turning a patient from a back rest position to a side rest position and vice versa maintains continuous circulation to pressure points on the body, thereby reducing the occurrence of bed sores. Indeed, to achieve optimal circulatory benefit, the patient needs both his or her upper and lower torso free of any contact with cloth fabric. Patients also need to be laterally repositioned from back rest to side rest position and vice versa to permit inspection and treatment of incisions and/or injuries, to allow for bathing, and to allow for the removal and replacement of bedding.
In addition to laterally repositioning a patient in a bed, patients have a tendency to migrate longitudinally on the bed surface from the head of the bed towards the foot of the bed, particularly when the head is elevated. It is common for such a patient to need to be repositioned up to 16 times in a 24 hour period. The task of longitudinally repositioning a patient is also extremely difficult and cumbersome for a single care provider.
It is believed that fifty to sixty percent of all care giver injuries are directly related to patient repositioning tasks. Back injuries are the most common complaint of the care giver. Often two care givers are required to perform the patient positioning task. Unfortunately, because of the lack of a second care provider, many patients are not moved as often as needed and patient care suffers as a result.
Existing prior art addresses some of the needs of bedridden patients, but does not satisfy all needs. For example, many draw sheets allow a patient to be repositioned from a back rest position to a side rest position, and vice versa. Some draw sheets further include fixed straps in order that a single care giver can accomplish the repositioning. However, Applicant is not aware of any prior art device in which the draw sheet is detachable from the body straps to allow access to the patient""s body while simultaneously maintaining the patient in a side rest position; one in which the patient can release the side straps from the bed rails; one which includes means for longitudinally repositioning a patient; and, in which all of these functions can be performed by a single care giver.
An object of this invention is to provide a means and method of positioning patients by a single care giver in a manner that will prevent injury to the care giver and does no harm to the patient.
Another object of this invention is to comfortably retain the turned patient in a side rest position while the care giver has two free hands to attend to patient needs, and to further allow complete access to the side rest retained patient""s torso.
Another object of this invention is to permit a side positioned patient the freedom and flexibility, if they are capable, to easily remove themselves from the retention device of this invention.
A further object of this invention is to allow a single care giver to longitudinally reposition a patient.
These and other objects of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading the specification, including the appended claims, and upon reference to the accompanying drawings.